Do FOS foods and additives worsen CD symptoms?

What are fructo-oligosaccharides?
See Wikipedia here.

"Commensal bacteria (normal microflora), mucosal immunity and chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases" in Immunol. Lett (2004)
"Conclusions:  Regulation of microflora composition (e.g. by probiotics and prebiotics) offers the possibility to influence the development of mucosal and systemic immunity but it can play a role also in prevention and treatment of some diseases."

"Clinical, microbiological, and immunological effects of fructo-oligosaccharide in patients with Crohn's disease" in Gut (2006)
"Conclusions:  FOS supplementation increases faecal bifidobacteria concentrations and modifies mucosal dendritic cell function. This novel therapeutic strategy appears to decrease Crohn's disease activity in a small open label trial and therefore warrants further investigation."

"Is there a link between food and intestinal microbes and the occurrence of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis?"in JGHF (2008)
"Proposition:  Altering the composition of the intestinal microflora by using probiotics and prebiotics has been a promising therapy for ameliorating chronic intestinal inflammation, and could be a preventive against IBD for people with disease-susceptible genes."

"Prebiotic carbohydrates: not sweet yet for Crohn's disease?" in Gut (2010)
Commentary:  The double-blind placebo controlled study performed by Benjamin et al 1 published in Gut ( in press) shows that the daily consumption of 15 g fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS) worsens the clinical signs of active Crohn's disease. The message for the clinician and the patient is clear: despite a strong rationale and hopes from open studies, 2 there is presently no evidence of efficacy of prebiotics in Crohn's disease. The same conclusion applies for probiotics and synbiotics. 3 However, one should avoid throwing the baby out with the bath water." [Emphases mine.]

"Randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of fructo-oligosaccharides in active Crohn's disease" in Gut (2011)
Conclusion:  An adequately powered placebo-controlled trial of FOS showed no clinical benefit in patients with active Crohn's disease, despite impacting on DC (immunoregulatory dentrical cell) function."

"Intestinal microbiota in inflammatory bowel disease: friend of foe?" in World J Gastroenterol (2011)
Conclusions:  Studies looking at gut microbial composition, epithelial integrity and mucosal immune markers in genotyped IBD populations are therefore warranted to shed light on this obscure pathogenesis

"Fructo-oligosaccharides as therapeutics for active Crohn's disease: Adequate power and no effect" in Inflamm Bowel Dis (2011)
Conclusions:  ?